A blog designed to facilitate communication about education, teaching, schools, labor issues, social justice, politics and ordinary life. Statements or expressions of opinions herein 'do not' represent the views or official positions of DCPS, American Federation of Teachers, Washington Teachers' Union or its members. Views are my own. Anyone who claims otherwise is violating the spirit and purpose of this blog.

6 Pages

Oct 22, 2010

Hot Off The Press: Reduction In Force (RIF) In DCPS

Featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence & candidate for WTU General Vice President

Update: The Washington Teacher led the story onDCPS layoffs which were later confirmed by Bill Turque and Fox 5 News. According to inside sources, the total number of layoffs were not reported accurately by the DCPS spokesperson and numbers could be as high as 127 employees.

Sources have told The Washington Teacher that Deputy Chancellor, Kaya Henderson instituted yet another round of layoffs of DC Public Schools employees on Friday, October 22. These layoffs are one year after the October 2, 2009 anniversary date of layoffs of 266 teachers and approximately 100 other school staff. Inside sources report that this latest reduction in force allegedly includes special education specialists, placement specialists, central office staff and school based social workers and school psychologists some of whom may be members of the Washington Teachers Union. Stay tuned for further details on the 2010 round of school layoffs.

Rhee may be on her way out, but her reign of terror continues. Paying contractors to do the job of DCPS employees may not serve them well. Rhee has hired many contractors to assist with special education will poor results.

Also, it looks like the WAPO has not learned its lesson. Here they go again, now we have the great and grand Kaya Henderson. Let us not live through another Rhee. Gray please find someone else and SOON!

It seems to me that The Washington Teacher Broke this story not Bill Turque at the Washington Post. Therefore the Washington Post must give the proper attribution to the Washington Teacher. What is fair for the Goose is fair for the Gander.

TEACHERS ARE NEXT. Parker and Henderson's secret deals just like Parker and Rhee's. I am sure it will probably happen after this election.

This just makes no sense. When are teachers going to come together and storm the offies of the WIlson Building, and Central Office ? We have to stop allowing ourselves to be attacked this way. I truly hope that everyone has mailed their ballots back in for Saunders/Peterson slate. We need strong leadership in these important times. It is clear that the current administration is not afraid of George.

Hi Candi, I haven't heard anything but George Parker surely isn't going to want to broadcast this fact a week before the elections. He's robocalling for dental benefits and robocalling every few days to say raises will be in the October pay check to get his name out there. I have heard Ms Henderson is in the shadows of her predecessor and different in name only.

I can't say I'm surprised by this. Many of us forcast as much when the contract was being considered. They (Rhee, Henderson, & company) are a sneaky lot, significantly underreporting the numbers of employees fired. All a PR ploy. Expect more, as Fenty ordered $6.5 mil in cuts and this purportedly only equalled $1.2.

Another question is, if they're letting go of SPED personnel, what are the schools going to do when these seriously disordered children are brought back into the schools? Who are the ones with expertise to deal with them?

Too bad Rhee's severance package wasn't reduced because of her dereliction of fiduciary duty by seriously overspending the system's budget by tens of millions of dollars several years straight. She doesn't deserve a golden parachute, THAT'S FOR SURE! Other school systems who are foolishly considering her for a post, take note!

And DCPS is encouraging Special education parents to return their children to DCPS. To programs which are not prepared to assist these children to be successful. Additionally, the word is that DCPS is offering parents up to $15,000 to return their children to DCPS from private placement. So much for an educationally appropriate program.

"I am in special education. It is only a matter of time before this happen at the teacher level."

Candi, I know that your official position is that grammar doesn't matter. However, I disagree. As a teacher, I find it embarrassing when my fellow teachers do not know basic subject-verb agreement. It makes us all look bad. More to the point, if this "teacher" does not know subject-verb agreement, how can we expect his/her students to learn it?

Because one person makes an error in subject verb agreement online does not mean she/he doesn't know it, don't be ridiculous they're not taking an exam this is the Internet for xxxing sake. Have you never made a typo or misspoke then corrected yourself, we have serious issues to contend with here.

Moderated Reply to 10/23/10 anonymous (listed below), et al.I don't have an official position on this blog about grammar. My goal here is to facilitate conversation about important issues in public education. I want to bring commenters back to the issue at hand about the DCPS reduction in force. Some people here have another agenda . Let me put a period at the end of this discussion on grammar and I want to focus your attention to the 175 million dollar budget deficit that will require DCPS to make even further cuts of 6.5 million total at the local school level in the upcoming weeks and months. What are you hearing about cuts and/or layoffs ?

The Washington Teacher_______________________________________________reply from anonymous commenteranon at 334pm: I agree, but not posting comments with such defects will eliminate at least half. It would be interesting to know how such issues, written or verbal, are reflected in IMPACT ratings of effectiveness. Anyone know?

I am concerned about how these cuts will hurt our schools. Given that there will be another 5.3 million dollar cuts, it stands to reason that teachers will be laid off next. There is so much instability in DCPS right now. The bottom line is that these cuts will mainly hurt students.

I blame Rhee's willy-nilly spending and the lack of oversight. When will there be an audit? Gray will have his hands full cleaning up Rhee's/ Fenty's mess.

Your readers deserve to know that this is NOT a RIF. Not one classroom position has been cut. The Washington Post and other media outlets are reporting that some positions dealing with private school placements have been cut.

Actually Anonymous at 140 You are wrong. DCPS staff were laid off Bill Turque who reported this after The Washington Teacher at 5:30 on his blog. Here is the link http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcschools/I believe Candi because her sources are 99.9999 % right.

Sign a petition against Value Added at Economic Policy Institute. We invite you to add your name to the below statement, initiated by ten prominent education scholars, that urges policymakers to not pursue heavy reliance on test scores for evaluating, rewarding and removing teachers. Links to relevant research on this issue are listed below. http://www.epi-data.org/education.

Reflective Educator:It is my understanding that staff were notified Friday. I don't know all the details but I did get to talk to a person who was let go and identified themselves as a placement specialist. Hopefully more information will be forthcoming. Staff seem afraid to talk. I guess they are still in shock.

IT SEEMS THAT ALL THE POLITICAL PEOPLE ARE TURNCOATS TO THE BLACK CHILDREN AND PARENTS IN THI CITY. I WILL NOT VOTE FOR GRAY AND I DON'T CARE IF FENTY WINS A WRITE-IN ELECTION BECUASE IT SEEMS THAT GRAY IS PROMISING THE SAME. HOW LITLE HE IS TO HAVE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM TO INSIST THAT HE CONTINUE RHEE'S REFORMS. HE MUST REALLY BE AS STUPID AS THEY SAY HE IS OR HE WOULD TELL THEM TAKE YOUR MONEY AND RUN BECUASE IT COMES WITH NO GOOD WILL. HE TOOK OUR VOTES FOR GRANTED.

My Dad named me Candi with an i. Thank God for him ;--) Otherwise you'd be calling me Markie. What was my Mom thinking? Luv her anyway. My parents Lish (like delicious) & Clif. Gram, Pap, Mommie Ella & Bush. My grandparents had a profound influence & impact on my life. I miss & love them immensely. If my parents hadn't been my parents I would have wanted them to be my friends. They are such "cool" people. At the very least they would both be on my party invitation list if we weren't related.
I'm thankful for the love of my family. Because of the love & support of my family & favor from God, I was destined for really great things.